Eric Church is Bringing a New Guest Along on His ‘Blood Sweat & Beers Tour’ – His First Career No. 1 Single “Drink in My Hand”

Eric Church has a new guest on his career first “Blood Sweat & Beers” headling tour and it’s his career first # 1 single “Drink in My Hand” !

Can we get an Amen from the Choir !

“Drink in My Hand” topped Country radio charts this week and is the first of this North Carolina native’s 10 singles so far to do so.

Old fans are certainly celebrating that Church’s time has finally come. They’ve been with him since Sinners and never looked back.

New fans are awestruck at being introduced to this (new) country artist, wondering where they’ve been that they hadn’t previously heard of his superior songwriting, vocals and kick-ass concerts.

But of late, the whole world is being blown away by Church, CHIEF and the Choir.

That’s because . . .

“Normally, you have No. 1 singles before you have No. 1 albums and arena tours,” comments Church, whose third album, CHIEF made its # 1 debut atop the album chartS in July 2011. “For us, it was the other way.”

On the heels of Church’s debut record Sinners Like Me (2006) and sophomore follow-up Carolina, (2009) neither of which garnered much radio airplay nor “industry” attention, Eric retreated to the Carolina hills to”stoke the creative flame” and emerged with the blueprint for his third studio album (CHIEF) that would break ground, break records and break the glass ceiling the industry had hovering over his head.

How Did He Do It . . .
Peering through “Smoke a Little Smoke” from the stage, Church could see he’d struck a chord where it mattered – with his fans. He took that knowledge, his talent, mixed it with his perfectionism and set out to give his fans an album that would outdo Sinners and Carolina. Now, if you’d heard Sinners and Carolina, you’d never think that coulda been done. But it was and how Eric did it was with focus, determination and integrity.

And with one month remaining, you’d think there was time for no more. But before 2011 closed:

Eric received a GRAMMY nomination for “Best Country Album” for CHIEF

Taste of Country nominated CHIEF for Album of the Year

NPR Music named CHIEF one of their Top 50 Albums of 2011

iTunes named Eric their 2011 Country Breakthrough Artist of the Year and featured CHIEF in their Best of 2011 section

Amazon named CHIEF in the Top 10 of its Best Country Albums of 2011

CHIEF landed at No. 19 on Rolling Stones Magazine’s list of the 50 Best Albums of 2011 . . . and

Rob Harvilla’s SPIN list recognized CHIEF as one of the Top Albums of 2011

Now, I’d say THAT’S how you do your FIRST # 1 single !

And in the words of The Chief:

“This is the 10th single we have released to radio,” explains Church. “It is truly the greatest example of belief, dedication, determination and plain old hard work that we have achieved this milestone. I can’t thank the EMI staff and country radio enough for making this happen and believing in the music, but the real gratitude must go to our fans. I’ve heard countless stories from hundreds of fans of how they have gone above and beyond to get our songs heard and demand that people pay attention to what’s going on in our world. I can’t think of a better way to kick off a tour!”

So, I’d also say you’d best get your tickets to Eric Church’s “Blood Sweat & Beers Tour”f-a-s-t because record-breaking ticket sales has spiked the announcement of a second leg of Eric’s 2012 “Blood Sweat & Beers” headling tour – and The Chief’s first # 1 single “Drink in My Hand” surely just poured a whole new shot of energy into this event !

Thank you for your lovely comment and support of Eric. “Totally deserves it” is certainly an understatement, huh ! Man his time has finally come and it’s come in a HUGE way. I too am over-the-top elated for him.

And I apologize if the headline was misleading. I wanted to have a little fun with it as this is just a ginormous happening so I hope you weren’t disappointed once you clicked.

I know Brantley Gilbert is listed as Church’s “official” opening act. But he does have several other artists joining him on the tour as well and Sonia Leigh is one of them. Be sure to check Eric’s tour page to see which artist will be with him at a venue near you. And “like” him on facebook so you can be updated if any changes occur on the tour. With what’s happening with Eric right now, anything could change, anyone could be added, so you never know.

Thanks again for joining us here at Country Music Pride and supporting Eric Church. Be sure to “share” the article on Facebook and/or Twitter with all your friends to help spread the word !!!

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Contrary to the name, Country Music Pride is not just about country—we're also about bluegrass, folk, alt-country and a fair amount of classic rock—but most of all, we're about love. We built this site because we love the music and wanted to provide an online music source for a genre that didn't quite have its Pitchfork Media or Nah Right equivalent. We seek to provide engaging, fresh content daily, ranging from news and features to album reviews to in-depth interviews with some of the top performers today, from Dan Tyminski to Dolly Parton.

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